"There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth
are absent."
Leo Tolstoy

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Socking It To The Cities

When Jane Jacobs moved from the United States to Canada, she looked around at Toronto and concluded that Canada's largest city provided a model for wise urban development. "Here is the most hopeful and healthy city in North America," she wrote, "still unmangled, still with options."

Twenty-five years later -- after the Neo Conservative Revolution was firmly entrenched -- the title of her last book, Dark Age Ahead, chronicled her growing disillusionment with what the vaunted elites had done to Canadian cities.

There is a public poverty that has settled across this urban region in
the years between Jacobs’ optimism and gloom. It is evident in the
shabbiness of our public space and the dilapidation of our
infrastructure. Not for all, but for most, it is conspicuous too by the
scarcity, sometimes absence, of our infrastructure — from transit to
affordable housing to child care.

There is a private poverty too. It is
found all over but is concentrated in the expanse between our downtown
and the “cities in waiting” in the exurban belt beyond Steeles. In these
inner suburbs, a new in-between city has emerged where social and
economic problems abound.

But rather than address these problems, the Harperites have put all their eggs in the resources basket, choosing to build pipelines instead of cities. Given the fact that 80% of us live in cities, something is seriously out of joint. Kellaway and Keil write:

The latest federal budget displays this government’s callous
indifference to its role in establishing the conditions necessary for
urban centres to succeed. Urban economies build upon communities and
infrastructures that support creativity, innovation and productivity. At
a minimum, this means national programs for transit, housing and child
care. These are the obvious strategies for enhancing our economic
competitiveness and supporting, socially, our diverse urban communities.

In place of such urban investment is
this budget’s promise to hasten resource development and the
infrastructure — explicitly pipelines — to enable its export. Nevermind
the objective of post-carbon cities as the oil-centricity of our
national economy is more deeply entrenched, our dollar ever more lofty
and, correspondingly, the manufacturing base of our urban economies ever
more diminished. But this is a budget that continues to expose our
manufacturing base not only to this “Dutch Disease” but also to
economies with vastly lower wages and weaker employment standards. And,
it is into such a remade labour market of our own that this budget will
force future seniors for another two years, effective 2023.

Given the fact that Stephen Harper grew up in Toronto, one would think he would be familiar with the problems the city faces. But, then, one would think he is wise enough -- when procuring military hardware -- not to keep two sets of books.

It's simply a myth that the economist-in chief -- "the smartest guy in the room" -- is smart. It's not good economic policy to sock it to Canadian cities.

About Me

A retired English teacher, I now write about public policy and, occasionally, personal experience. I leave it to the reader to determine if I practice what I preached to my students for thirty-two years.